Marie Curie was one of the most accomplished scientists in history. Together with her husband, Pierre,
she discovered radium, an element widely used for treating cancer, and studied uranium and other
radioactive substances. Pierre and Marie's amicable collaboration later helped to unlock the secrets of the
atom. Marie was born in 1867 in Warsaw, Poland, where her father was a professor of physics. At the
early age, she displayed a brilliant mind and a blithe personality. Her great exuberance for learning
prompted her to continue with her studies after high school. She became disgruntled, however, when she
learned that the university in Warsaw was closed to women.
Determined to receive a higher education, she defiantly left Poland and in 1891 entered the Sorbonne, a
French university, where she earned her master's degree and doctorate in physics. Marie was fortunate to
have studied at the Sorbonne with some of the greatest scientists of her day, one of whom was Pierre
Curie. Marie and Pierre were married in
1 895 and spent many productive years working together in the physics laboratory. A short time after they
discovered radium, Pierre was killed by a horse-drawn wagon in
1 906. Marie was stunned by this horrible misfortune and endured heartbreaking anguish. espondently she
recalled their close relationship and the joy that they had shared in scientific research. The fact that she
had two young daughters to raise by herself greatly increased her distress. Curie's feeling of desolation
finally began to fade when she was asked to succeed her husband as a physics professor at the
Sorbonne. She was the first woman to be given a professorship at the world-famous university. In 1911
she received the Nobel Prize in chemistry for isolating radium. Although Marie Curie eventually suffered a
fatal illness from her long exposure to radium, she never became disillusioned about her work.
Regardless of the consequences, she had dedicated herself to science and to revealing the mysteries of
the physical world.
_ ____she remembered their joy together.

• A. Tearfully
• B. Happily
• C. Dejectedly
• D. Sorrowfully
• E. Worried

LETHARGIC : ENERGY

• A. despondent: melancholy
• B. notorious:infamy
• C. mellow: wrath
• D. leisurely: relaxation
• E. lavish: extravagance

Charles A. Lindbergh is remembered as the first person to make a nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic,
in 1927. This feat, when Lindbergh was only twenty-five years old, assured him a lifetime of fame and
public attention. Charles Augustus Lindbergh was more interested in flying airplanes than he was in
studying. He dropped out of the University of Wisconsin after two years to earn a living performing
daredevil airplane stunts at country fairs. Two years later, he joined the United States Army so that he
could go to the Army Air Service flight-training school. After completing his training, he was hired to fly
mail between St. Louis and Chicago. Then came the historic flight across the Atlantic. In 1919, a New
York City hotel owner offered a prize of $25,000 to the first pilot to fly nonstop from New York to Paris.
Nine St. Louis business leaders helped pay for the plane Lindbergh designed especially for the flight.
Lindbergh tested the plane by flying it from San Diego to New York, with an overnight stop in St. Louis.
The flight took only 20 hours and 21 minutes, a transcontinental record. Nine days later, on May 20,1927,
Lindbergh took off from Long Island, New York, at 7:52 A. M. He landed at Paris on May 21 at 10:21 P. M.
He had flown more than 3,600 miles in less than thirty four hours. His flight made news around the world.
He was given awards and parades everywhere he went. He was presented with the U. S. Congressional
Medal of Honor and the first Distinguished Flying Cross. For a long time, Lindbergh toured the world as a
U. S. goodwill ambassador. He met his future wife, Anne Morrow, in Mexico, where her father was the
United States ambassador. During the 1930s, Charles and Anne Lindbergh worked for various airline
companies, charting new commercial air routes. In 1931, for a major airline, they charted a new route from
the east coast of the United States to the Orient. The shortest, most efficient route was a great curve
across Canada, over Alaska, and down to China and Japan. Most pilots familiar with the Arctic did not
believe that such a route was possible. The Lindberghs took on the task of proving that it was. They
arranged for fuel and supplies to be set out along the route. On July 29, they took off from Long Island in a
specially equipped small seaplane. They flew by day and each night landed on a lake or a river and
camped. Near Nome, Alaska, they had their first serious emergency. Out of daylight and nearly out of fuel,
they were forced down in a small ocean inlet. In the next morning's light, they discovered they had landed
on barely three feet of water. On September 19, after two more emergency landings and numerous close
calls, they landed in China with the maps for a safe airline passenger route. Even while actively engaged
as a pioneering flier, Lindbergh was also working as an engineer.
In 1935, he and Dr. Alexis Carrel were given a patent for an artificial heart. During
World War I in the 1940s, Lindbergh served as a civilian technical advisor in aviation.
Although he was a civilian, he flew over fifty combat missions in the Pacific. In the
1 950s, Lindbergh helped design the famous 747 jet airliner. In the late 1960s, he spoke widely on
conservation issues. He died August 1974, having lived through aviation history from the time of the first
powered flight to the first steps on the moon and having influenced a big part of that history himself.
What happened immediately after Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic?

• A. He left college.
• B. He was given the Congressional Medal of Honor.
• C. He married Anne Morrow.
• D. He attended the Army flight-training school.
• E. He flew the mail between St. Louis and Chicago.

Conflict had existed between Spain and England since the 1570s. England wanted a share of the wealth
that Spain had been taking from the lands it had claimed in the Americas.
Elizabeth I, Queen of England, encouraged her staunch admiral of the navy, Sir Francis Drake, to raid
Spanish ships and towns. Though these raids were on a small scale, Drake achieved dramatic success,
adding gold and silver to England's treasury and diminishing Spain's omnipotence. Religious differences
also caused conflict between the two countries. Whereas Spain was Roman Catholic, most of England
had become Protestant.
King Philip II of Spain wanted to claim the throne and make England a Catholic country again. To satisfy
his ambition and also to retaliate against England's theft of his gold and silver, King Philip began to build
his fleet of warships, the Armada, in January 1586.
Philip intended his fleet to be indestructible. In addition to building new warships, he marshaled one
hundred and thirty sailing vessels of all types and recruited more than nineteen thousand robust soldiers
and eight thousand sailors. Although some of his ships lacked guns and others lacked ammunition, Philip
was convinced that his Armada could withstand any battle with England. The martial Armada set sail from
Lisbon, Portugal, on May 9,1588, but bad weather forced it back to port. The voyage resumed on July 22
after the weather became more stable. The Spanish fleet met the smaller, faster, and more maneuverable
English ships in battle off the coast of Plymouth, England, first on July 31 and again on August 2. The two
battles left Spain vulnerable, having lost several ships and with its ammunition depleted. On August 7,
while the Armada lay at anchor on the
French side of the Strait of Dover, England sent eight burning ships into the midst of the
Spanish fleet to set it on fire. Blocked on one side, the Spanish ships could only drift away, their crews in
panic and disorder. Before the Armada could regroup, the English attacked again on August 8. Although
the Spaniards made a valiant effort to fight back, the fleet suffered extensive damage. During the eight
hours of battle, the Armada drifted perilously close to the rocky coastline. At the moment when it seemed
that the Spanish ships would be driven onto the English shore, the wind shifted, and the Armada drifted
out into the North Sea. The Spaniards recognized the superiority of the English fleet and returned home,
defeated
The two battles left the Spanish fleet ____.

• A. open to change
• B. defeated
• C. discouraged
• D. triumphant
• E. open to attack